As part of our efforts to provide products and services to prevent or mitigate disasters, JVCKENWOOD makes use of our wisdom and technological expertise in acoustics systems to provide broadcasting equipment for use in emergencies and for business. We are advancing the implementation of multilingual emergency and professional-use broadcasting equipment that answers the recent inbound demand resulting from the rising number of foreign visitors to Japan. Thus, we are helping enable overseas visitors to Japan, of which the number is expected to increase even more, to spend their time in Japan with a sense of security and safety.

Our latest multilingual emergency and professional-use broadcasting equipment—the EM-E1500 series and the EM-K150 series—is able to broadcast voice warning messages in Japanese and English. Furthermore, by replacing with the multilingual CF (compact flash) card, the equipment is able to make announcements in three to four different languages (Chinese and Korean in addition to Japanese and English)*1, thus making it possible to reach even more people in times of emergency. At present, the number of foreign visitors to Japan is nearly 29 million people per year*2, and as Japan will be hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, being able to provide appropriate information and evacuation guidance in times of emergency is considered a critical issue. We aim to further increase the implementation of our multilingual emergency and professional-use broadcasting equipment by the end of fiscal 2018, thus advancing the deployment of our products into the market and thereby contributing to building an infrastructure for further encouraging more overseas visitors to Japan.

*1 Approval from the fire department of the local jurisdiction is needed for implementation of this equipment.

*2 According to statistical data provided by the Japan National Tourism Organization (2017).